State Department: 1 American dead in Algerian standoff WASHINGTON (AP) — One American worker at a natural gas complex in Algeria has been found dead, U.S. officials said Friday as the Obama administration sought to secure the release of Americans still being held by militants on the third day of the hostage standoff in the Sahara. How Frederick Buttaccio, a Texas resident, died was not noted in a statement from State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. A spokesman for the Buttaccio family in t...

GOP leader: House to vote on debt limit increase WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled House will vote next week to permit the government to borrow more money to meet its obligations, a move aimed at heading off a market-rattling confrontation with President Barack Obama over the so-called debt limit. Full details aren’t settled yet, but the measure would give the government about three more months of borrowing authority beyond a deadline expected to hit as early as mid-February, No. 2...

21 invasive pythons killed so far in Florida contest IN THE FLORIDA EVERGLADES (AP) — The man known as “Alligator Ron” has a lifetime of experience in the Florida Everglades, a fleet of airboats at his disposal and knows the habitats of furry prey for large reptiles. He still couldn’t lead a pack of hunters to a single Burmese python. That’s the catch in Florida’s “Python Challenge”: Even experienced hunters with special permits to regularly stalk the exotic snake through Florida’s swamplands ar...

Bloomberg urges mayors to press Congress on guns WASHINGTON (AP) — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants the nation’s mayors to pressure members of Congress to support President Barack Obama’s gun violence proposals and take their cue from the hardball tactics often used by the gun lobby. Bloomberg said in a speech Friday to the U.S. Conference of Mayors that mayors remain on the front lines and deal with gun violence on a daily basis, often comforting families of shooting victims. The bill...

Address: Obama looks to turn a page on first term WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has been looking to historians for guidance on how to shape his second inaugural’s words into a speech for the ages, eager to make good use of his twice-in-a-lifetime opportunity to command the world’s attention. He will take the oath of office Sunday in an intimate White House ceremony witnessed by family, and then again Monday at the Capitol before a crowd of hundreds of thousands on the National Mall...

Surge in home construction likely to continue WASHINGTON (AP) — The aftermath of the housing bust forced many homebuilders to dramatically scale back construction on new homes to avoid the risk of ending up saddled with a trove of newly built, yet unsold properties. But an improving housing market has homebuilders feeling more confident about sales, and that’s likely to kick the pace of new construction into a higher gear this year. The Commerce Department said Thursday that builders brok...

Autopsy conducted on body of Illinois lottery winner CHICAGO (AP) — Authorities on Friday exhumed the body a Chicago man who was poisoned with cyanide after winning the lottery and conducted an autopsy in the hopes that it will help solve the mystery surrounding his death. The body of Urooj Khan was exhumed from a cemetery Friday morning and placed inside a black hearse, which was escorted by four police cars to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. Pathologists collected samples of hair, n...

Gov’t: Food allergies may be disability under law WASHINGTON (AP) — Allergic to gluten? What about peanuts? Federal disabilities law may be able to help. The Justice Department said in a recent settlement with a Massachusetts college that severe food allergies can be considered a disability under the law. That gives those who suffer from such allergies a new avenue in seeking menus that fit their diet. But some say it goes too far. The decision leaves schools, restaurants and other places tha...

Overcharging batteries eyed in Boeing 787 mishaps WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s likely that burning lithium ion batteries on two Boeing 787 Dreamliners were caused by overcharging, aviation safety and battery experts said Friday, pointing to developments in the investigation of the Boeing incidents as well as a battery fire in a business jet more than a year ago. An investigator in Japan, where a 787 made an emergency landing earlier this week, said the charred insides of the plane’s lithium ion bat...

Lilly drug chosen for Alzheimer’s prevention study Researchers have chosen an experimental drug by Eli Lilly & Co. for a large federally funded study testing whether it’s possible to prevent Alzheimer’s disease in older people at high risk of developing it. The drug, called solanezumab (sol-ah-NAYZ-uh-mab), is designed to bind to and help clear the sticky deposits that clog patients’ brains. Earlier studies found it did not help people with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s but it showed some pro...

Government again delays proposed ’fracking’ rule WASHINGTON (AP) — The Interior Department is again delaying a proposed rule that would require companies drilling for oil and natural gas on federal lands to publicly disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations. The Obama administration first proposed a “fracking” rule last May, with a final rule expected by the end of the year. Officials later revised the timeline to early 2013. On Friday, the department pushed the deadline bac...

Ex-New Orleans mayor Nagin charged with bribery NEW ORLEANS (AP) — More than a decade ago, Ray Nagin was elected mayor of New Orleans on a vow to root out corruption in a city plagued by decades of it. On Friday, the former mayor was indicted on charges he lined his pockets with bribe money, payoffs and gratuities while the chronically poor city struggled to recover from Hurricane Katrina’s punishing blow. The federal indictment alleges that city contractors paid Nagin more than $200,000 in...

Experts on deception say everyone lies Lance Armstrong may have been branded liar and cheat of the month, but experts say he’s not as different from the rest of us as we’d like to believe. Lying, they say, is part of the human condition, something most people do every day. And that’s reflected in the cavalcade of celebrities cowed into confession after their deceptions were exposed — from Richard Nixon’s denial of the Watergate break-in to Bill Clinton’s denial of an affair with an...

Flu season 'bad one for the elderly,' CDC saysThe number of older people hospitalized with the flu has risen sharply, prompting federal officials to take unusual steps to make more flu medicines available and to urge wider use of them as soon as symptoms appear. The U.S. is about halfway through this flu season, and "it's shaping up to be a worse-than-average season" and a bad one for the elderly, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's no...

10 Things to Know for Friday, Jan. 18, 2013Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Friday: 1. NOT AS EASY AS RIDING A BIKE During TV interview, Armstrong acknowledges what he has lied about repeatedly for years: He doped. 2. RAID SHROUDED BY THE FOG OF WAR The death toll is unclear after Algerian forces storm a gas plant in the Sahara, trying to free dozens of hostages held by al-Qaida-linked militants. 3. NOTRE DAME STAR PERPETU...

Dear Abby’s legacy: Wit, warmth, and snappy advice NEW YORK (AP) — Two men had recently bought a house together in the tiny San Francisco neighborhood of Nob Hill, and the neighbors were annoyed. The men were entertaining “a very suspicious mixture of people,” the neighbors wrote into their paper’s advice column, asking, “How can we improve the neighborhood?” “You could move,” Dear Abby replied. That zinger was such classic Abby — real name, Pauline Friedman Phillips — that it moved her daught...

Armstrong admits doping: ’I’m a flawed character’ CHICAGO (AP) — He did it. He finally admitted it. Lance Armstrong doped. He was light on the details and didn’t name names. He mused that he might not have been caught if not for his comeback in 2009. And he was certain his “fate was sealed” when longtime friend, training partner and trusted lieutenant George Hincapie, who was along for the ride on all seven of Armstrong’s Tour de France wins from 1999-2005, was forced to give him up to anti-d...

Biden: Nation needs to respond to gun violence WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden said the nation could not wait any longer to respond to gun violence, telling mayors on Thursday that the White House would “take this fight to the halls of Congress.” Biden outlined President Barack Obama’s sweeping proposal, announced Wednesday, during a speech to the United States Conference of Mayors, providing a rationale for a plan that includes a ban on assault weapons, the limiting of high-cap...

Deficient levees found across AmericaNEW ORLEANS (AP) — Inspectors taking the first-ever inventory of flood control systems overseen by the federal government have found hundreds of structures at risk of failing and endangering people and property in 37 states. Levees deemed in unacceptable condition span the breadth of America. They are in every region, in cities and towns big and small: Washington, D.C., and Sacramento Calif., Cleveland and Dallas, Augusta, Ga., and Brookport, ...